Microcapsules are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in various food compositions. In general, an outer shell is used to protect an inner core material. Some microcapsules are designed so that the shell will release the core at some predetermined point in time. The shells of such microcapsules are made of various materials, selected based upon specific chemical and/or physical properties which will be exploited to cause release of core material as desired. For example, the hardness of the material used for the shell may be of primary interest in designing a microcapsule which will be released when the microcapsule is subjected to certain compression loads. In other instances, the shell material may be selected based upon its solubility characteristics, or melting point.